When Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it took a mere week for over a million people to flee the country and a matter of days for the world to realise the effect this conflict would have on the Ukrainian society. Looking solely at education, more than 2,000 schools and universities were damaged or destroyed in 2022, with at least 10% of educational institutions having been wiped out by 2023. At Ukrainian universities today, targeted bombings continue to cause regular power outages and internet failure, forcing students and lecturers to hide and work from basements, subway shelters and bathrooms. It’s no surprise that the number of research papers published has declined, the ‘human capital’ at universities has diminished and international knowledge flows and collaborations have been disrupted.

Paradoxically, scientists are predicting that much of the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine will be based on innovative solutions and new technologies – the exact elements offered to society by universities, which act as melting pots for research, innovation and entrepreneurship. This makes protecting and boosting Ukrainian universities an important part of the groundwork being laid for the country’s post-war recovery.

Plugging Ukrainian universities into a catalysing network

While brainstorming how to help, Antoine Berwart, Project Officer at EIT Urban Mobility, and Monika Blodgett, Programme Manager at EIT Manufacturing, came up with the idea of allowing Ukrainian universities to join innovation-related projects under the EIT´s HEI Initiative, a joint EIT Community activity coordinated by EIT Raw Materials, and in which EIT Urban Mobility is actively taking part. Although each project funded by the HEI Initiative has a different thematic focus such as urban mobility, climate, or food, the shared goal is to increase the innovation and entrepreneurship capacities of the participating universities. Antoine and Monika’s idea was to plug Ukrainian universities into this network, hoping – in the long term – to aid post-war recovery . “We firstly wanted to continue to support higher education in Ukraine in times of war, and secondly to hopefully build long-lasting partnerships between universities… and allowing Ukrainian students, professors and university staff  to stay connected with their colleagues in universities across Europe,” explains Berwart.

Acting swiftly, Berwart and Blodgett submitted a proposal to the EIT, secured approval and managed to onboard 26 top Ukrainian universities into 14  HEI Initiative projects, representing 10% of the country’s universities. So far, more than €2 million has been funnelled into these new collaborations, helping the new Ukrainian partners to ‘hit the ground running’ in the middle of the projects and giving rise to some inspiring results.

Budding success stories

Although the true fruits of these collaborations will be borne in the longer term, Antoine explains that they are already “witnessing clear signs of impact” after less than a year. So far, dozens of Ukrainian student-led start-ups have received business and financial support and hundreds of students and university staff have received innovation and entrepreneurship training. Berwart explains that this has included helping students and academic researchers to take their scientific papers to market, “such as building a business plan around the research and creating tangible products.” Perhaps most exciting though, are the wider signs of long-lasting relationships being built between the institutions, which Berwart describes as “staff exchange, student exchange, applying to other funding opportunities , signing Memorandums of Understanding between universities that didn’t know each other before”, all of which bode extremely well for sustainable and long-term post-war recovery efforts.

Several projects, such as ILCA, DISCO, HIVE and InnovAid, have also made great strides since bringing in their Ukrainian partners.

Building the future of Ukraine through powerful partnerships

In recent interviews, Ukrainian partners highlighted multiple benefits from the EIT HEI projects. One is access to funding, allowing them to keep their educational activities above water during this difficult time: “The Ukrainian partners highly appreciate the EIT and the KICs for providing funding for education activities during the war. Many international activities and projects had to be stopped or cancelled, making the funding allocation from the EIT and the KICs even more valuable,” signalled Berwart.

However, something all Ukrainian partners emphasised is the value that they see in the networks they are building through the EIT´s HEI Initiative. The numerous ties growing between the project partners, the Ukrainian universities and external networks are providing them with plenty of opportunities for future growth. This “collaboration and knowledge exchange between academia, industry and other sectors,” as described by project partner Ruslan Biloskurskyi (Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University) of the ILCA project, is allowing Ukrainian universities to cultivate a “dynamic ecosystem” and bolster the country’s position for its first step into post-war recovery.

“Although the organisations have only been working on their respective projects for less than a year…we are seeing that this is working and that long-term relationships are being built,” says Berwart, “the Ukrainian partners are hopeful that this collaboration will continue to grow.”

To find out more about the EIT´s HEI Initiative, its funded projects and follow the progress of the 23 Ukrainian universities taking part, head to EIT HEI website.